OMG and Winter Wonders

Well, I looked at my goals list for 2025 this morning and sadly discovered that I'd not finished nearly as much as I would have like. In my defense, however, I did have a lot of fun exploring new art genres like making an altered book junk journal in which I took notes at our art conference and in which I'm continuing to make notes on the book Culture Care by Makoto Fujimura:




And I had a super nice day trying air-dry clay projects with my friend, Trish:



 So, I revised said list & printed it for easy reference and to be able to add to it:

I plan to hang it above my sewing machine in my newly organized and beautified craft room so hopefully it will help me stay on track better. πŸ˜„

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So, here are my monthly and weekly goals:

Monthly quilt - Mug Guest Room Skinny Twin Size

I want to finish the borders on this and get it to a long-arm quilter. It's for a skinny Jenny Lind antique bed, so I don't have to make it very wide.


Monthly Hand-work - Everyday Embroidery and December Xstitch

I'm not going to have the goal of finishing the Everyday Embroidery this month, but I want to average 10 blocks a week for this month.


I'm very close to done with the December cross-stitch which I'll use as part of my monthly decor change-up, so I want to get it done this month for next year's use.

Week's Goals

Mug quilt - Get 'er done!

Everyday Embroidery - 8 blocks this week since I'm getting a late start

December Cross-stitch - Finish and put away

Crocheted headscarves - List on Etsy & wait to see what happens


Decision-making - How do I want to finish these two landscape fabric pictures made on another fun craft day with Tricia? 

            And what do I actually want to do with these Christmas blocks?



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I'll send you off into a hopefully delightful rest of your week by giving you a little taste of our winter visitors. They love the seed droppings from my birdfeeders.







Christmas Celebrations and Continued Crafting

 


I have had the enjoyment, work, and privilege of writing, directing, and accompanying our church's Christmas musical program. I used some older Michael Card songs, some newer Keith and Kristin Getty songs, and the tried-and-true old carols. We went through Jesus' birth all the way to why he came and the hope given through his death and resurrection.




My sweet and talented husband was willing to direct the choir numbers since I certainly can't do that and I was at the piano. I was blessed by the willing and excited participation of choir members and willingness to do duets, trios, and smaller ensembles. What a joy! {And they thanked us. πŸ™„Sheesh! No thanks needed; it was a delight and blessing, though lots of work.}

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So, what crafting/sewing took place in between practices and after?

I got the new {gifted} sewing machine set up and organized. I was given a bunch of notions along with it. I also got the online manual printed and ready for studying.


Wondrous dehydrated apples were made and gifted. Now I need to make more for Lovey and me. 😊


I'm enjoying reading a friend's copy of Culture Care by Makoto Fujimura, an artist who speaks on the beauty and necessity of good art to the glory of God. I'm taking lots of notes in my junk journal.


In my reorganizing of my "studio" I found this wall hanging made with Joy's Christmas in July instructions and decided it was time to bind and gift it.



So, it's done and will be mailed to my daughter tomorrow when I go into town.


I crocheted this head-scarf from some sock yarn I found at the thrift store. I'm debating whether or not to try to sell it - not sure if I should re-open my Etsy store, or just put it on FB Marketplace, or Ebay, or what. I've gotten several compliments from even younger folk when I wore mine recently. 


I've also gotten my indoor salad garden going again and will be happy to use the pea, broccoli, and clover shoots in our smoothies and salads. Hmmm, maybe in our chicken burritos tonight.


As you can see in the photo above, we are pretty assured that we'll have a white Christmas. We've had a lot of snow, even for our snow-blessed{?} area. Since I am not a big fan, particularly of cold, I'm happy to stay in, keep warm, drink lots of hot tea, and catch up on sewing. 

So, on to my week's goals {trying to be moderate because I'm having a friend for homemade soup lunch on Wednesday, hosting a ladies' tea Thursday, and a craft day with another friend on Friday. Whew! and I'm an introvert. 😁}:

With Sewing Machine:
* I'd really like to put together the Sewing Room wall-hanging that Jennifer had as a BOM earlier this year because I'd like to hang it right above my sewing machine in my newly organized and beautified sewing room. 




* I also want to make four more blocks for this quilt top {hoping I can find the pattern in the here-to-fore unsorted pile. I found some fabric for the backing and am eager to get it done and on my Jenny Lind narrow guestbed.


With Needle and Thread
* Finish the arch in the Everyday Embroidery which I should have put in before I did the climbing rose and move on to doing the rest of the Elefantz Books and Roses BOM blocks for that year.


With Crochet Hook
* I might make another head-scarf since I have another skein of sock yarn and won't use it for anything else. I can always gift it to my daughter who loves them.


May your craftings and celebrations be full of joy and hope, 
knowing that God loves us!



Inspired to Blog Again

 Well, if Jennifer Reynolds can take a long hiatus from blogging and then decide to come back to it, I suppose that I may also. Now that the summer and autumn busyness is over, I'm ready for more cozy, wintry craftiness and sharing and getting to enjoy other peoples' crafting and being inspired by them and by some online challenges and blog hops.

Though I haven't been posting about my projects, I've certainly not been idle.

I dug out my "Everyday Embroidery" that I had started in 2022 and made a lot of progress on it, enjoying the fact that, because of other projects I'd been working on, I was now better at hand-applique.





I've also been crocheting a largeish "lapghan" for my mom who is always cold. It will be her New Year gift since we won't see her till then and it's made out of leftover yarns from other projects and is kinda fun and mindless. It's large enough now, but I'm going to keep at it a little longer because, having just had a cataract removed, I'm not seeing quite well enough to do embroidery.


The project that has most excited me is a fabric book I've been making using the aforementioned Jennifer Reynolds's A Year in the Garden BOM from several years ago. I'd had all 12 blocks embroidered and ready for use, but didn't really want to make a wall hanging since I'm short on wall space. So I'm turning them into a book and will show you more in future posts.



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A new and exciting development is that a friend gave me her deceased sister's cool sewing machine with hideaway cabinet. I haven't had time {or eyesight} to really play with it and get to know what it does yet, but I'm looking forward to experimenting with it. It didn't come with a manual, so I'll go looking online for that.






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Goals for 12/8-12/13:
At the sewing machine:
* Put cover and binding on Year in the Garden fabric book. Take pics to share next week.
* Explore new machine

At the handwork chair:
* Continue crocheting lapghan
* Do 3-5 embroideries on Everyday Embroidery as eyesight allows

In the craft room:
* Continue the rearranging and organizing
* Set up new machine station
* Hang some decor on the walls


I'll also be working on practicing piano daily to clean up some rough spots in my accompaniment of the church choir and small groups as we lead our church in worship through a music program this next Sunday. I'm excited and nervous. 😊 And I'm thankful my Lovey is directing the choir again as he hasn't been able to do that in quite a few years.


I'm enjoying seeing so many fun and beautiful projects again and wish you all a blessed Christmas season.






Finished "Peace" Fabric Junk Journal

In the Crafting Department {basically the whole house}:

I have sure been having fun with my fabric junk journal project! I themed it after my word for the year - Peace

Having been blessed with a fairly decent collection of tea towels, placemats {particularly beautiful ones embroidered in the Philippines where I grew up}, laces, lovely silk scarves dyed by my daughters, and some linocut projects, I hand-sewed them together to make my book.





This placemat had a silverware pocket so I made use of that...

...by backing a cross-stitch made years ago by my kind sister-in-law...


...and rolling it to insert into the pocket.


To make some of the quote pieces, I embroidered the words and on others I wrote them with permanent pen and ironed them.






This "Mine" embroidery was the edging of a beautiful pillowcase that was wearing thin.





It will become my regular coffee table book as soon as I clear the freshly laundered and folded clothes off the table. 😁 I am just so tickled with this creation and want to do more. So I shall!

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On the Homestead

I'm finishing up hatching out a bunch of quail eggs and they're happily peeping in the brooder for three weeks till they get moved to grow-out cages. Some will become new layer clutches and some will go in the freezer. I've got two regular egg customers that are pretty much paying for my feed costs, so that's a nice thing and I hope to grow that base.



The red lighting in the brooder is the heat lamp and the pen is there for a size comparison.


We have a young buck rabbit who was traded back to us because I mis-gendered him πŸ˜• and he is quite the acrobatic escape artist! His first morning back I found him running around the rabbit room having escaped from his five-foot-high cage. I put him back in after a merry chase. Then in the evening, here's where I found him...twice.


With Lovey's help, we moved him to a more secure cage. Not sure if he should end up in the freezer, or sold to pass along his strong acrobatic genes.

The snow is melted!!! So, of course I want to get out gardening, but in reality it's not smart to do so till Memorial Day weekend or so because of the danger of frosts and even freezes. So I'll do other outside chores as able.

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This week's goals:
In the Craft Department:

* Finish April's Elefantz BOM


* Solidify a plan for making another fabric book using my Elefantz BOM {again} blocks from a few years ago - the monthly garden series. Since I'll have Mom here again for a week, I'm not sure how far I'll get on this project, but if I do most of it by hand rather than machine, we could "keep company" watching TV together.


* I'd also like to catch up on A Quilting Life's BOM, but I'll have to play that one by ear.

On the Homestead:

* Buy more materials for building more quail cages
* Build two more quail layer cages which can also serve as grow-out cages as needed
* Spread manure/compost {"Money is like manure. No good unless it's spread around, making young things grow." or something like that}

In the Home:
* Make more pickled quail eggs - Lovey's favorite
* Wash insides of windows and install screens
* Organize neglected papers/paid bills from desk


May the coming of spring {or autumn as the case may be} bring many more ways to see the glory of God in everything.